HBO Sued by Soccer Ball Sweatshoppers

The sweatshop in India that makes most of the big league soccer balls for the world sued HBO for claiming that they were a sweatshop. On Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, they aired a story about six-year olds stitching soccer balls for Mitre for a couple cents an hour. Some kids were even sold by their parents to the factory and got paid only in spicy Indian potato appetizers twice a day. It turns out that while the subcontinent and Southeast Asia is bloated with horrific real sweatshops, HBO faked or dramatized much of the video clips and accounts in order to support the story being told to them by their activist contact in country. Hey, little kids, come over here and pretend to be sewing soccer balls for our cameras. I’ve got curry gumdrops for you. What HBO referred to as parents selling their kids to factories turns out to be nothing more than a tried and true and legally allowed jobs program for teenagers in India. The kids don’t have the Snapchat and iPads there so much. HBO argued some bullshit to get the now five year old case thrown out, but it didn’t fly and now a jury will decide how many tens of millions HBO will likely have to pay Mitre, as well as some kind of penalty for saying ‘Winter is coming’ for four years on Game of Thrones without winter coming.

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